LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Thousands rallied in major cities of the country on Friday threatening further protests and anarchy if the government moved to amend a controversial blasphemy law.
Demonstrators marched in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Multan, after influential religious parties called for protests to defend the law.
A crowd of nearly 1,500 people gathered in Lahore, calling for ‘Jihad’ and pledging to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). They also warned that attempts to soften the law would trigger nationwide protests. “Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and we will not tolerate any attempt to amend the law,” Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) leader Ahmad Khan told the participants. Former information minister and PPP lawmaker Sherry Rehman in November submitted a draft bill in the Lower House seeking an end to death penalty under the existing law. An English daily had quoted Rehman as saying that the law victimised minorities in the country.
Rights activists also say the law encourages extremism in a nation already besieged by Taliban attacks. Addressing a separate rally of over 500 people in Lahore, a leader of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, Husnain Siddiqui said, “We will launch a national movement against all those lawmakers, who support efforts to amend the law.” Politicians and conservative clerics have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother who was sentenced to death under the blasphemy law. In Karachi, more than 2,000 people rallied against Sherry’s proposed draft bill and demanded the government had Aasia a severe punishment for insulting the holy Prophet (PBUH). Leaders of the JUI and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party warned that the government would “face a strong reaction if Aasia was pardoned”. “The government should forget about amending the blasphemy law as any attempt in this regard will prove fatal,” a local religious leader Yahya Ludhianvi said.
The Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz-e-Khatam-e-Nubuwwat (AMTKN) leader Maulana Natahi announced that a million people are ready to sacrifice their lives if the blasphemy laws are repealed.
